Gut Microbiome Test Kit

Your gut is home to trillions of microorganisms including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and archaea, collectively known as the gut microbiome. You can think of your gut like a factory. In the same way that workers turn raw material into different products, our gut bacteria break-down foods to produce a number of different substances, including hormones, vitamins, antioxidants, and chemicals. There is a strong link between the substances produced by the gut microbiome and your overall health, from digestion and metabolic health, through to immunity and brain function. Given this link, you can begin to understand how testing your gut microbiome gives us important insights into your health. Based on the results from your gut microbiome test, you can make informed decisions to improve the diversity and restore balance in your gut. For example, some people have gut microbiome’s that can only produce short chain fatty acids (SCFAs - an important anti-inflammatory substance) from very specific types of fibre. Your report tells you which types of fibres are best for your gut bacteria to restore healthy levels of SCFAs.

Conventional microbiome tests that are currently available on the market mainly focus on telling you which types of gut bacteria you have. That’s good information, but our test goes a step further. Your gut is your body’s main engine room, which is fuelled by fibre. So what you really want to know is how good your gut bacteria are at turning the fibre you eat into short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs play an integral role in almost all aspects of gut and human health, so knowing how to make more of them is a game-changer to you and your health.  Our Gut Microbiome Test Kit is the first and only one that can tell you this. We help you understand how your gut bacteria breakdown different types of fibre to produce health-promoting short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Based on this, we provide personalised food recommendations using our patented technology to improve your overall health and wellbeing.

After you have provided your stool sample, and your microbiome has been analysed, we will send you an in-depth PDF report of your results. Your results will include useful insights such as your microbiome composition and diversity, as well as your gut efficiency scores.

With myota’s gut microbiome test kit, you’ll discover: a) How diverse your gut microbiome is, and how this compares to the general population. b) Which specific types of gut bacteria you have, and the role they play in your health. c) And most importantly, how good your gut bacteria are at producing important substances called SCFAs, and what you can eat to help them produce more. Based on your microbiome sample, we use our patented technology to provide you with personalised fibre-rich food recommendations that will improve your digestive, metabolic, immune, and brain health.

Collecting a sample is simple. Our toilet paper swab method is quick, easy, and discreet. Your kit comes with step-by-step instructions to guide you through the process. After sample collection, apply the return mailer sticker and pop into your nearest post box or post office.

It’s best to collect a sample at a time when you have maintained a regular diet and lifestyle for at least two weeks. This helps us understand what your “normal” gut microbiome looks like. Changes to your normal habits, such as antibiotics or short-term medication, travel, illness, or diet may impact your gut microbiome, resulting in a sample that isn’t accurate for you. It is also important to collect a sample from a bowel movement that is normal for you.

To ensure that you get a representative picture of your gut microbiome, we recommend that you don’t change your diet and lifestyle prior to taking the test. This means that if you haven’t started myota yet, take the test first. If you are already taking myota fibre, this is also not a problem as it’s part of your normal routine.

Your test kit should arrive within 5-7 working days. For any issues related to the shipment of your kit, please contact kit-support@myotahealth.com.

It takes between 4-6 weeks to process and analyse a sample once you have shipped it back to us. During this time, we will keep you updated by sending progress emails, including when we receive your sample in our lab and when your results are ready to view. In the unlikely event that we need to re-test a sample, we will contact you via email immediately.

The results of your microbiome test will be emailed to you as a detailed PDF report.

After you have received access to your detailed report, you have the opportunity to book a consultation with one of our in-house dieticians. During this 30-min video call, you are able to ask questions you may have about your report, including the interpretation of your results. You will also be able to review beneficial diet and lifestyle changes that may improve the health and diversity of your gut microbiome.

Based on your unique gut profile, we provide recommendations for fibre-rich foods that will give you the greatest benefit to immune, metabolic, digestive, and brain health. These foods are based on your gut microbiome’s ability to produce important substances called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), including butyrate and propionate.

While our Gut Microbiome Test Kit will provide interesting insights about the health of your gut, it was not specifically designed for people with gut conditions or symptoms. Our food recommendations do not take into account allergies, intolerances, medications, or medical conditions (including IBS or those following a low FODMAP diet). The foods that we recommend for you in this report are selected based on your gut microbiome fermentation capacities and the fibre-based research we conduct at myota. They are not selected based on your IBS diagnosis. Please consult your GP before making changes to your diet or lifestyle.

No, we don’t currently recommend our gut microbiome test for children under the age of 18. This is because the gut microbiome of children changes and evolves during infancy, childhood, and adolescence. This is not accounted for in our analysis, which is why our test is not recommended for children.

Unfortunately, we currently only ship within the UK. This is something we are working towards in the near future, so keep an eye out for updates.

Since our Gut Microbiome Test Kit contains medical equipment, it would not be safe for us to accept returns. If a test kit, or any of its contents are damaged or defective when you receive it, we will on request ship a replacement test kit free of charge. This is provided that the test kit is not expired and subject to the availability of a replacement test kit, unless the damage or defect was your fault. If we do not have a replacement test kit to ship to you when we would otherwise send you a replacement, we will issue you a refund. Please find our full refund policy here.

For questions or concerns about your Gut Microbiome Test Kit, please contact kit-support@myotahealth.com.